F 

857 
.54 


COMMERCE  IN  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN. 


SPEECH 


OF 


WILLIAM  H.  SEWAKD, 

//  J 

\  ?*o  i  -  i  g  7  ^ 


IN  THE 


SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


JULY   29,    1852. 


WASHINGTON : 
BUELL    &    BLANCHARD 

1852. 


U  OH1 
lun  Ur 


IN  SENATE,  JULY  29,  1852. 

A  bill  reported  by  Mr.  SEWARD,  from  the  Committee  on  Commerce, 
for  a  survey  and  reconnaissance  of  Bhering's  Straits,  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
and  the  courses  of  trade  between  America  and  China,  was  read. 
Mr.  SEWARD  rose  and  said : 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :     Some  years  ago,  when  ascending  the  Alabama,  I 

saw  a  stag,  plunge  into  the  river,  and  gallantly  gain  the  western  bank, 

,  while  the  desponding  sportsman,  whose  rifle  he  had  escaped,  sat  down 

>  to  mourn  his  ill  luck  under  the  deep  magnolia  forest  that  shaded  the 

*  eastern  shore.     You,  sir,  are  a  dweller  in  that  region,  and  are,  as  all 
"the  world  knows,  a  gentleman  of  cultivated  taste  and  liberal  fortunes. 
,  Perhaps,  then,  you  may  have  been  that  unfortunate  hunter.    Howsoever 

that  may  have  been,  I  wish  to  converse  with  you  now  of  the  chase,  and 

•  yet  not  of  deer,  or  hawk,  or  hound,  but  of  a  chase  upon  the  seas  ;  and 
» still  not  of  angling  or  trolling,  nor  of  the  busy  toil  of  those  worthy  fish 
ermen  who  seem  likely  to  embroil  us,  certainly  without  reluctance  on 

Jour  part,  in  a  controversy  about  their  rights  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  but 
'of  a  nobler  sport  and  more  adventurous  sportsmen  than  Izaak  Walton, 
"or  Daniel  Boone,  or  even  Nimrod,  the  mightiest  as  well  as  most  ancient 
jjof  hunters,  ever  dreamed  of — the  chase  of  the  whale  over  his  broad 
'.range  of  the  universal  ocean. 

Do  not  hastily  pronounce  the  subject  out  of  order  or  unprofitable,  or 
unworthy  of  this  high  presence.  The  Phoenicians,  the  earliest  mercan 
tile  nation  known  to  us,  enriched  themselves  by  selling  the  celebrated 
Tyrian  dye,  and  glass  made  of  sand  taken  from  the  sea ;  and  they  ac 
quired  not  only  those  sources  of  wealth,  but  the  art  of  navigation  itself, 
in  the  practice  of  their  humble  calling  as  fishermen.  A  thousand  years 
ago,  King  Alfred  was  laying  the  foundations  of  empire  for  Young  Eng 
land,  as  we  are  now  doing  for  Young  America.  The  monarch  whom 
men  justly  have  surnamed  the  Wise  as  well  as  the  Great,  did  not  dis 
dain  to  listen  to  Octher,  who  related  the  adventures  of  a  voyage  along 
the  coast  of  Norway,  "  so  far  north  as  commonly  the  whale  hunters 
used  to  travel-;  "  nor  was  the  stranger  suffered  to  depart  until  he  had 
submitted  to  the  King  "a  most  just  survey  and  description"  of  the 
Northern  Seas,  not  only  as  they  extended  upwards  to  the  North  Cape, 
but  also  as  they  bore  away  downwards  along  the  southeast  coast  of  Lap 
land,  and  so  following  the  icy  beach  of  Russia  to  where  the  river  Dwina 
discharged  its  waters  into  the  White  Sea,  or,  as  it  was  then  called,  the 
Sea  of  Archangel.  Perhaps  iny  poor  speech  may  end  in  some  similar 


W      '  .   *  4    > 

lesson.  The  incident  I  have  related  is  the  burthen  of  the  earliest  his 
torical  notice  of  the  subjugation  of  the  monster  of  the  seas  to  the  uses 
of  man.  The  fishery  was  carried  on  then,  and  near  six  hundred  years 
afterwards,  by  the  Basques,  Biscayans,  and  Norwegians,  for  the  food 
yielded  by  the  tongue,  and  the  oil  obtained  from  the  fat  of  the  animal. 
Whalebone  entered  into  commerce  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  at  first 
commanded  the  enormous  price  of  seven  hundred  pounds  sterling  per 
ton,  exceeding  a  value  in  this  age  of  ten  thousand  dollars.  Those  were 
merry  times,  if  not  for  science,  at  least  for  Royalty,  when,  although 
the  material  for  stays  and  hoops  was  taken  from  the  mouth,  the  law 
appropriated  the  tail  of  every  whale  taken  by  an  English  subject  to  the 
use  of  the  Queen,  for  the  supply  of  the  Royal  wardrobe. 

In  1846  the  Portuguese  reached  the  Cape  of  Storms,  and  in  happy 
augury  of  an  ultimate  passage  to  India,  changed  its  ill-omened  name  to 
that  of  "  Good  Hope ; "  and  immediately  thereafter  the  Northern 
States  of  Europe,  especially  England  and  Holland,  began  that  series  of 
voyages,  not  even  yet  ended,  in  search  of  a  passage  to  the  East  through 
the  floating  fields  and  rolling  mountains  of  ice  in  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The 
unsuccessful  search  disclosed  the  refuge  of  the  whales  in  the  bays  and 
creeks  of  Spitzbergen.  In  1575  a  London  merchant  wrote  to  a  foreign 
correspondent  for  "  advice  and  direction  as  to  killing  the  whale,"  and 
received  instructions  how  to  build  and  equip  a  vessel  of  two  hundred 
tons,  and  to  man  it  exclusively  with  experienced  whale  hunters  of  Bis 
cay.  The  attraction  of  dominion  was  stronger  in  that  age  than  the 
lust  of  profit.  The  English  now  claimed  Spitzbergen,  and  all  its  sur 
rounding  ice  and  waters,  by  discovery.  The  Dutch,  with  truth,  alleged 
an  earlier  exploration,  while  the  Danes  claimed  the  whole  region  as  a 
part  of  Greenland — a  pretension  that  could  not  then  be  disproved  ;  and 
all  these  parties  sent  armed  forces  upon  the  fishing  ground,  less  to 
protect  their  few  fishermen,  than  to  establish  exclusive  rights  there. 
After  some  fifty  years,  these  nations  discovered,  first,  that  it  was  absurd 
to  claim  jurisdiction  where  no  permanent  possession  could  ever  be  estab 
lished,  by  reason  of  the  rigors  of  climate ;  and  secondly,  that  there 
were  fish  enough  and  room  enough  for  all  competitors.  Thenceforward, 
the  whale  fishery  in  the  Arctic  Ocean  has  been  free  to  all  nations. 

The  Dutch  perfected  the  harpoon,  the  reel,  the  line,  and  the  spear,i 
as  well  as  the  art  of  using  them.  And  they  established,  also,  the 
system  which  we  have  since  found  indispensable,  of  rewarding  all  thej 
officers  and  crews  employed  in  the  fishery,  not  with  direct  wages  or 
salaries,  but  with  shares  in  the  spoils  of  the  game,  proportioned  to  ski! 
and  experience.  Combining  with  these  the  advantages  of  favorable 
position,  and  of  frugality  and  perseverance  quite  proverbial,  the  Dutch 
even  founded  a  fishing  settlement  called  Smeerenburgh,  on  the  coast  of 
Spitzbergen,  within  eleven  degrees  of  the  North  Pole,  and  they  took 
whales  in  its  vicinity  in  such  abundance  that  ships  were  needed  to  go 
out  in  ballast,  to  carry  home  the  surplus  oil  and  bone  above  the  capacity 
of  the  whaling  vessels.  The  whales,  thus  vigorously  attacked,  again 
changed  their  lurking  place.  Spitzbergen  was  abandoned  by  the  fish 
ermen,  and  the  very  site  of  Smeerenburgh  is  now  unknown.  In  the 
year  1496,  Sebastian  Cabot,  in  the  spirit  of  that  age,  seeking  a  north 
western  passage  to  the  Indies,  gave  to  the  world  the  discovery  of  Prime 
Vista,  or,  as  we  call  it,  Newfoundland,  and  the  Basques,  Biscayans 


Dutch,  and  English,  immediately  thereafter  commenced  the  chase  for 
whales  in  the  waters  surrounding  it. 

Scarcely  had  the  colonists  of  Massachusetts  planted  themselves  at 
Plymouth,  before  the  sterility  of  the  soil  and  the  rigor  of  the  climate 
forced  them  to  resort  to  the  sea  to  eke  out  their  subsistence.  Pursuing 
the  whales  out  from  their  own  bays,  in  vessels  of  only  forty  tons  bur 
then,  they  appeared  on  the  fishing  ground  off  Newfoundland  in  the  year 
1690.  Profiting  by  nearness  of  position  and  economy  in  building  and 
equipping  ships,  and  sharing  also  in  the  bounties  with  which  England 
was  then  stimulating  the  whale  fishery,  they  soon  excelled  all  their 
rivals  on  the  Newfoundland  waters,  as  well  as  in  Baffin's  Bay  and  off 
the  coast  of  Greenland.  Thus  encouraged,  they  ran  down  the  coasts 
of  America  and  Africa,  and  in  the  waters  rolling  between  them  they 
discovered  the  black  whale,  a  new  and  inferior  species,  yet  worthy  of 
capture ;  and  then  stretching  off  toward  the  South  Pole,  they  found 
still  another  species,  t/he  sperm  whale,  whose  oil  is  still  preferred  above 
all  other ;  and  thus  they  enlarged  the  whale  fishery  for  the  benefit  of 
the  world,  which  since  that  time  has  distinguished  the  two  branches  of 
that  enterprise  geographically  by  the  designation  of  the  Northern  and 
Southern  fisheries.  In  17 75  the  fisheries  were  carried  on  by  the 
Americans,  the  English,  the  Dutch,  and  the  French.  The  French 
employed  only  a  small  fleet,  the  Dutch  a  larger  one  of  129  sail.  The 
English  had  only  96  ships,  while  the  Americans  had  132  vessels  in  the 
Southern  fishery,  and  177  in  the  Northern  fishery,  manned  with  4,000 
persons,  and  bringing  in  oil  and  whalebone  of  the  value  of  one  million 
one  hundred  and  eleven  thousand  dollars.  This  precociousness  of  Amer 
ican  nautical  enterprise  elicited  from  Burke,  in  his  great  speech  for  con 
ciliation  to  the  colonies,  a  tribute  familiar  to  our  countrymen,  and  per 
haps  the  most  glowing  passage  that  even  that  great  orator  ever  wrote  or 
spake  : 

li  Look  at  the  manner  in  which  the  people  of  New  England  have  of  late  carried 
on  the  whale  fishery.  Whilst  we  follow  them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  of 
ice,  and  behold  them  penetrating  into  the  deepest  recesses  of  Hudson's  Bay  and 
Davis's  Straits,  whilst  we  are  looking  for  them  beneath  the  Arctic  circle,  we  hear 
that  they  have  pierced  into  the  opposite  region  of  Polar  cold — that  they  are  at  the 
Antipodes,  and  engaged  under  the  frozen  serpent  of  the  South.  Falkland  Island, 
which  seemed  too  remote  and  romantic  an  object  for  the  grasp  of  national  ambi 
tion,  is  but  a  stage  and  resting  place  in  the  progress  of  their  victorious  industry. 
Nor  is  the  Equatorial  heat  more  discouraging  to  them -than  the  accumulated  winter 
of  both  the  Poles.  We  know  that  whilst  some  of  them  draw  the  line  and  strike 
the  harpoon  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  others  run  the  longitude,  and  pursue  their 
gigantic  game  along  the  coast  of  Brazil.  No  ocean  but  what  is  vexed  with  their 
fisheries,  no  elimate  that  is  not  witness  to  their  toils.  Neither  the  perseverance  of 
Holland,  nor  the  activity  of  France,  nor  the  dexterous  and  firm  sagacity  of  English 
enterprise,  ever  carried  this  perilous  mode  of  hardy  enterprise  to  the  extent  to 
which  it  has  been  pushed  by  this  recent  people — a  people  who  are  still,  as  it  were, 
in  the  gristle,  and  not  yet  hardened  into  the  bone  of  manhood." 

But  Britain  did  not  conciliate.  The  Revolution  went  on,  and  the 
American  whale  fishery  perished,  leaving  not  one  vessel  on  either  fish 
ing  ground. 

Yet  it  is  curious,  Mr.  President,  to  mark  the  elasticity  of  our  coun 
trymen  in  this  their  favorite  enterprise.  A  provisional  treaty  of  peace 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  was  concluded  on  the 
30th  of  November,  1782.  "  On  the  3d  of  February,  1783,"  (I  read 


from  an  English  paper  of  that  period,)  "  tlie  ship  Bedford,  Captain 
Moores,  belonging  to  Massachusetts,  arrived  in  the  Downs.  She 
passed  Gravesend  on  the  4th,  and  on  the  6th  was  reported  at  the  cus 
tom-house  in  London.  She  was  not  allowed  regular  entry  until  after 
some  consultation  between  the  commissioners  of  customs  and  the  Lords 
of  the  Council,  on  account  of  the  many  acts  of  Parliament  yet  in  force 
against  the  rebels  of  America.  She  was  loaded  with  587  barrels  of 
whale  oil,  and  manned  wholly  with  American  seamen,  and  belonged  to 
the  island  of  Nantucket.  The  vessel  lay  at  the  Horsley-Downs,  a 
little  below  the  Tower,  and  was  the  first  which  displayed  the  thirteen 
stripes  of  America  in  any  British  port." 

Nevertheless,  the  lost  vantage  ground  was  not  easily  nor  speedily 
regained.  The  eifort  was  made  without  protection,  against  exclusion 
in  foreign  markets,  and  against  bounties  by  the  English  Government 
equivalent  to  forty  dollars  per  man  employed,  or  sixty  per  cent,  on  the 
value  of  every  cargo  obtained — bounties  not  occasionally  nor  irregularly 
offered,  but  continued  from  1750  to  1824,  and  amounting  in  the  aggre 
gate  to  three  millions  of  pounds  sterling.  Nor  was  this  all.  These 
bounties,  enhanced  with  additional  inducements,  were  offered  to  the 
Nantucket  fishermen,  on  condition  of  their  abandoning  their  country 
and  becoming  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  British  Colonies,  or  of  the 
British  Islands.  It  seemed,  indeed,  that  a  crisis  in  this  great  national 
interest  had  come.  Happily  there  was,  on  the  French  side  of  the 
Channel,  at  least,  one  unwearied  friend  of  America,  as  there  were 
many  watchful  enemies  of  England.  Lafayette  wrote  several  letters 
to  Boston,  and  arrested  an  immigration  from  Nantucket  to  the  British 
Colonies  and  Islands  already  on  the  eve  of  embarkation,  and  then  ad 
dressed  himself  to  the  French  monarch  and  his  Court.  France  saw  at 
once  the  dangers  of  a  transfer  of  so  great  a  number  of  seamen,  together 
with  the  very  secret,  art  and  mystery  of  whale  hunting,  to  her  heredi 
tary  and  relentless  enemy.  The  good  but  ill-fated  Louis  XVI  equipped 
six  whaling  vessels,  with  American  harpooners,  on  his  own  account,  and 
offered  a  bounty  of  nine  dollars  per  man,  payable  by  the  Royal  Treas 
ury,  to  every  American  fisherman  who  should  emigrate  to  France.  In 
a  whole  3Tear,  only  nine  families,  containing  thirty-three  persons,  ac 
cepted  this  offer ;  and  therefore  the  King,  in  compliance  with  Lafay 
ette's  first  advice,  adopted  the  expedient  of  discriminating  in  favor  of 
American  cargoes  of  oil  and  whalebone  in  the  French  market.  The 
American  whale  fishery  began  to  revive,  and  in  1787,  1788,  and  1789, 
it  employed  an  average  of  122  vessels.  But  it  still  labored  under  the 
pressure  of  competition,  stimulated  by  bounties  both  in  England  and  in 
France.  In  1790,  the  Great  and  General  Council  of  Massachusetts 
appealed  to  Congress  for  protection  to  this  great  interest  of  that  Com 
monwealth.  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  Secretary  of  State,  submitted  an  elab 
orate  reply,  which,  while  it  was  liberal  in  its  spirit,  nevertheless  closed 
with  the  declaration,  that  "  the  whale  fishery  was  a  branch  of  industry 
so  poor  as  to  come  to  nothing  with  distant  nations  who  did  not  support 
it  from  their  treasuries — that  our  position  placed  our  fishing  on  ground 
somewhat  higher,  such  as  to  relieve  the  National  Treasury  from  giving 
it  support,  but  not  to  permit  it  to  derive  support  from  the  fishery,  nor 
to  relieve  the  Government  from  the  obligation  to  provide  free  markets 
for  the  productions  of  the  fishery,  if  possible." 


The  enterprise  had  not  yet  languished  into  life,  when  the  French 
Revolution  of  1789  occurred,  which  involved  Europe,  and  ultimately 
the  United  States,  in  wars  that  swept  the  latter,  as  well  as  the  French 
and  Dutch,  from  all  the  fisheries,  and  left  them  in  the  exclusive  enjoy 
ment  of  Britain,  who  achieved  in  those  wars  her  now  established  pre- 
minence  as  the  conqueror  of  the  seas.  At  their  close,  the  British  had 
146  vessels  in  the  Northern  whaling  ground,  which  captured  no  less 
than  733  whales,  and  thus  obtained  13,590  tons  of  oil  and  438  tons  of 
whalebone ;  and  56  ships  in  the  Southern  whale  fishery  equally  success- 
iul.  The  Americans  now  re-entered  the  game,  and  the  tables  were 
speedily — and,  as  we  think,  permanently — turned  in  their  favor.  In 
1824  the  British  became  discouraged,  and  withdrew  their  bounties  ; 
and  in  1842  they  had  no  more  than  18  vessels  in  the  North  fishery, 
which  captured  only  24  whales.  The  Southern  fishery  declined  still 
more  rapidly;  so  that,  in  1845,  not  one  British  whaler  appeared  in  the 
South  Seas.  Since  that  time,  all  nations  have  virtually  abandoned  this 

hardy  form  of  perilous  enterprise"  in  favor  of  the  Americans.  The 
entire  whaling  fleet  of  the  world,  in  1847,  consisted  of  about  900  ves 
sels,  40  of  which  belonged  to  France,  20  to  Bremen  and  other  ports  in 
Northern  Europe,  20  to  New  Holland  and  other  British  Polynesian 
Colonies  ;  and  all  others,  more  than  800  in  number,  with  a  tonnage  of 
240,000  tons,  belonged  to  the  United  States.  The  capital  thus  em 
ployed  exceeded  twenty  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  annual  productions 
of  the  fisheries  amounted  to  thirteen  millions  of  dollars.  With  the  de 
cline  of  this  enterprise  in  Great  Britain,  her  commercial  writers  began 
bo  discountenance  whale  fishing  altogether ;  and  while  they  now  repre 
sent  it  as  a  mere  gambling  adventure,  they  endeavor  to  stimulate  the 
people  of  Continental  Europe  to  substitute  vegetable  oils  for  those  pro 
cured  in  the  seas. 

Mr.  President :  Pray  consider  the  cost,  time,  dangers,  and  hazards  of 
the  whale  fishery.  Each  vessel  with  its  outfit  is  worth  $30,000,  and 
carries  thirty  able-bodied  seamen^  and  is  afloat  on  a  single  voyage  one 
or  two,  perhaps  three  years.  It  finds  the  whale  nowhere  below  the 
sixtieth  degree  of  latitude,  and  can  remain  there  only  during  the  brief 
Polar  summer  of  three  months.  The  whole  time  may  elapse  without  a 
whale  being  seen.  When  discovered,  every  stage  of  his  capture  is  toil 
some,  and  attended  with  multiplied  dangers  to  the  assailants,  increased 
by  the  shoals,  the  ice,  the  storms,  and  the  fogs,  which  protect  the 
animal  against  his  pursuers.  The  statistics  are  absolutely  frightful  to 
a  landsman  or  a  common  seaman.  In  1819,  of  sixty-three  British 
ships  sent  to  Davis's  Straits,  ten  were  lost.  In  1821,  out  of  sixty- 
nine,  eleven  were  lost.  Of  eighty-seven  ships  that  sailed  for  Davis's 
Straits  in  1830,  no  less  than  eighteen  were  lost,  twenty-four  returned 
clean,  while  not  one  of  the  remainder  had  a  full  cargo,  and  only  one  or 
two  half  fished. 

Pray  consider  now,  sir,  that  the  great  triumph  of  the  American  fish 
ermen  was  achieved,  and  is  still  sustained,  not  only  without  aid  from 
the  Government,  but  practically  also  without  aid  from  the  capital  or 
enterprise  of  general  commerce,  and,  indeed,  to  quote  the  nervous  lan 
guage  of  Jefferson,  "  with  no  auxiliaries  but  poverty  and  rigorous 
economy."  The  whaling  fleet  of  the  United  States,  in  1846,  consisted 
of  seven  hundred  and  thirty-seven  vessels.  Of  the  thirty  States,  only 


8 

five — New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and 
New  York — were  represented ;  and  all  of  these  except  New  York  are 
the  States  least  blessed  in  fertility  and  climate.  New  Hampshire, 
having  only  a  single  port,  sent  out  only  one  vessel.  Rhode  Island,  one 
of  the  three  most  diminutive  States,  equipped  fifty-two.  Connecticut, 
a  small  Statej  sent  out  one  hundred  and  twenty-four.  New  York,  with 
her  extended  territory,  vast  wealth,  and  stupendous  commercial  estab 
lishments,  sent  only  eighty-five ;  and  all  the  rest  proceeded  from  that 
State,  inferior  to  many  others  in  extent,  wealth,  and  commerce,  but 
superior  to  them  all  in  intellectual  and  social  development — Massachu 
setts. 

Wealth  does  nothing,  patronage  does  nothing,  while  vigor  does  every 
thing  for  the  whale  fishery.  In  Great  Britain,  London  resigned  it  in 
favor  of  those  poor  and  obsolete  towns,  Hull,  in  England,  and  Peter- 
head,  in  Scotland,  as  soon  as  the  Government  bounties  ceased.  So  of 
the  eighty-five  vessels  which  in  1846  represented  New  York  in  the 
fishery,  only  one  went  up  from  the  port  of  New  York,  the  commercial 
capital  of  the  State  and  of  the  continent,  while  no  less  then  eight  pro 
ceeded  from  Cold  Spring,  a  mere  nook  in  the  mountains  which  crowd 
toward  each  other  just  above  the  city,  as  if  to  prevent  the  waters  of 
the  Hudson  from  their  destined  meeting  with  the  tides  of  the  ocean. 
All  the  others  were  sent  forth  from  New  Suffolk,  Greenport,  and  Sag 
Harbor,  inconsiderable  villages  or  hamlets  on  the  outward  coast  of 
Long  Island.  Massachusetts  exhibits  the  same  case.  Boston  finds 
more  lucrative  employment  for  her  capital  in  spindles,  in  railroads,  and 
even  in  her  fields  of  ice  and  quarries  of  granite  ;  and  so  leaves  the 
profits  and  toils  of  the  whale  fisher)7  to  Freetown,  Falmouth,  Sippican, 
Wareham,  Plymouth,  Holmes'  Hole,  Fall  River,  Provincetown,  Fair- 
haven,  New  Bedford,  and  Nantucket — towns  which  but  for  their  pur 
suit  of  the  whale  fishery  would  scarcely  have  been  honored  with  designa 
tion  on  the  chart  or  names  in  the  gazetteer.  Most  wondrous  of  all, 
Nantucket  is  a*  sandy  island,  fifteen  miles  long  and  three  miles  broad, 
capable  of  maintaining  by  agriculture  only  one  hundred  persons,  and 
yet  it  was  the  cradle  of  the  whale  fishery ;  and  neither  any  town  in 
America,  nor  in  England,  nor  even  in  France,  has  ever  successfully 
established  or  at  all  maintained  the  whale  fishery,  without  drawing,  not 
merely  its  knowledge  of  whale-hunting,  but  the  officers  and  crews  of  its 
vessels,  chiefly  from  that  sandy  shoal  thus  rising  above  the  surface  of 
the  sea. 

Need  I  dwell  here  on  the  whale  fishery  as  a  source  of  national  wealth 
and  an  element  of  national  force  and  strength  ?  The  number  of  those 
who  are  actively  afloat  in  the  pursuit  ranges  from  15,000  to  20,000, 
while  twenty  times  that  greatest  number  of  persons  are  indirectly 
engaged  in  the  culture  of  hemp  and  the  manufacture  of  cordage,  the 
building  of  ships,  furnishing  their  supplies,  manufacturing  and  prepar 
ing  the  oil  and  whalebone,  in  sending  them  to  market,  and  in  the  vari 
ous  other  occupations  incidentally  connected  with  the  trade.  The 
wealth  thus  acquired  leaves  all  the  resources  of  the  country  untouched. 
Dr.  Franklin  cheered  the  fishermen  of  his  day  with  the  apothegm  that 
whosoever  took  a  fish  out  of  the  sea  always  found  a  piece  of  silver  in 
his  mouth,  and  our  experience  has  confirmed  its  truth,  although  it  is 
now  rejected  by  the  commercial  writers  of  England. 


We  are  the  second  in  rank  among  commercial  nations.  Our  superi 
ority  over  so  many  results  from  our  greater  skill  in  ship-building,  and 
our  greater  dexterity  in  navigation,  and  our  greater  frugality  at  sea. 
These  elements  were  developed  in  the  fisheries,  and  especially  in  the 
Northern  fishery.  We  think  that  we  are  inferior  to  no  nation  in  naval 
warfare.  The  seamen  who  have  won  our  brilliant  victories  on  the 
ocean  and  on  the  lakes  were  trained  and  disciplined  in  this  the  severest 
of  all  marine  service  ;  and  our  naval  historians  agree  that  it  constituted 
the  elementary  school  of  all  our  nautical  science.  What,  then,  would 
compensate  us  for  the  loss  or  for  the  decline  of  the  whale  fishery  ! 

Mr.  President,  I  have  tried  to  win  the  favor  of  the  Senate  toward 
the  National  whale  fishery  for  a  purpose.  The  whales  have  found  a 
new  retreat  in  the  Seas  of  Ochotsk  and  Anadir,  south  of  Bhering 
Straits,  and  in  that  part  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  lying  north  of  them.  In 
1848,  Captain  Roys,  in  the  whale  ship  Superior,  passed  through  those 
seas  and  through  the  straits,  braving  the  perils  of  an  unknown  way  and 
an  inhospitable  climate.  He  filled  his  ship  in  a  few  weeks,  and  the 
news  of  his  success  went  abroad.  In  1849,  a  fleet  of  154  sail  went 
up  to  this  new  fishing  ground  ;  in  1850,  a  fleet  of  144  ;  and  in  1851,  a 
fleet  of  145.  The  vessels  are  manned  with  30  persons  each  ;  and  their 
value,  including  that  of  the  average  annual  cargoes  procured  there,  is 
equal  to  nine  millions — and  thus  exceeds  by  near  two  millions  the 
highest  annual  import  from  China.  But  these  fleets  are  beset  by  not 
only  such  dangers  of  their  calling  as  customarily  occur  on  well- explored 
fishing  grounds,  but  also  by  the  multiplied  dangers  of  shipwreck 
resulting  from  the  want  of  accurate  topographical  knowledge — the  only 
charts  of  those  seas  being  imperfect  and  unsatisfactory.  While  many 
and  deplorable  losses  were  sustained  by  the  fleets  of  1849-'50,  we  have 
already  information  of  the  loss  of  eleven  vessels,  one-thirteenth  part  of 
the  whole  fleet  of  1851,  many  of  which  disasters  might  have  been 
avoided  had  there  been  charts,  accurately  indicating  the  shoals  and 
headlands,  and  also  places  of  sheltered  anchorage  near  them.  These 
facts  are  represented  to  us  by  the  merchants,  ship-owners,  and  under 
writers,  and  are  confirmed  by  Lieutenant  Maury,  who  presides  in  this 
department  of  science  in  the  navy  as  well  as  in  the  labors  and  studies 
of  the  National  Observatory.  We  want,  then,  not  bounties  nor  protec 
tion,  nor  even  an  accurate  survey,  but  simply  an  exploration  and  recon- 
noissance  of  those  seas,  which  have  so  recently  become  the  theatre  of 
profitable  adventure  and  brave  achievement  of  our  whale  hunters.  This 
service  can  be  performed  by  officers  and  crews  now  belonging  to  the 
navy,  in  two  or  three  vessels  which  already  belong  or  may  be  added  to 
it,  and  would  continue  at  most  only  throughout  two  or  three  years. 
Happily,  the  measure  involves  nothing  new,  untried,  or  uncommon. 
To  say  nothing  of  our  recent  search  for  the  lamented  Sir  John  Frank 
lin,  nor  of  our  great  exploring  expedition  under  Captain  Wilkes,  we 
are  already  engaged  in  triangulating  a  coast  survey  of  the  Atlantic  shore. 
Charts,  light-houses,  and  beacons,  show  the  pilot  his  way,  not  only  over 
that  ocean  and  among  its  islands,  but  along  all  our  rivers  and  even 
upon  our  inland  lakes.  The  absence  of  similar  guides  and  beacons  in 
the  waters  now  in  question  results  from  the  fact,  that  the  Pacific  coast 
has  but  recently  fallen  under  our  sway,  and  Bhering's  Straits  and  the 
seas  they  connect  have  not  until  now  been  frequently  navigated  by  the 


10 

seamen  of  any  nation.  Certainly  somebody  must  do  this  service.  But 
who  will  1  The  whalers  cannot.  No  foreign  nation  will,  for  none  is 
interested.  The  constitutional  power  and  responsibility  rests  with  the 
Federal  Government,  and  its  means  are  adequate. 

California  is  near  this  fishing  ground.  Her  enterprising  citizens  are 
already  engaged  in  this  pursuit,  and  henceforward  the  whale  hunters  of 
Nantuckct  must  compete  with  new  rivals  possessing  the  advantage  of 
nearness  to  the  scenes  of  their  labors.  California,  therefore,  joins 
Massachusetts  in  this  reasonable  demand. 

Mr.  President,  the  small  exploring  fleet  thus  proposed  would  be 
obliged  to  quit  the  Northern  seas  early  in  September,  and  could  not 
return  to  them  until  the  succeeding  June.  I  propose  that  it  should 
spend  that  long  season  in  performing  a  service  not  dissimilar  under 
milder  skies,  in  that  part  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  its  adjoining  seas, 
which  is  usually  traversed  by  vessels  sailing  from  New  York  and  San 
Francisco  to  China  and  the  Indies.  Remember,  sir,  if  you  please,  that 
not  only  has  no  Asiatic  prince,  merchant,  or  navigator,  ever  explored 
this  one  of  all  the  oceans  the  broadest  and  most  crowded  and  crowned 
with  islands,  but  that  they  have  forbidden  that  exploration  by  Euro 
pean  navigators,  who  have  performed  whatever  has  been  done  at  the 
peril,  and  often  at  the  cost  of,  imprisonment  and  death.  We  have 
made  no  accurate  survey,  for  we  have  only  just  now  arrived  and  taken 
our  stand  on  the  Pacific  coast.  We  are  new  on  that  ocean— nay,  we 
are  only  as  of  yesterday  upon  this  continent ;  and  yet,  maps  and  charts 
are  as  necessary  to  the  seafaring  man  on  that  ocean  as  on  any  other ; 
and  just  as  necessary  on  every  ocean  as  monuments  and  guides  are  to 
him  who  traverses  deserts  of  unimpressible  sand  or  wastes  of  trackless 
snow. 

Lieutenant  Maury  informs  us  that  every  navigator  of  those  waters  is 
painfully  impressed  with  a  sense  of  surrounding  dangers — they  exist, 
and  yet  the  only  charts  that  have  been  made  fail  to  indicate  in  what 
forms  or  in  what  places  they  will  appear.  So  imperfect  is  our  topo 
graphical  information,  that  a  large  island  called  Ousima,  supposed  to 
be  thickly  inhabited  and  highly  cultivated,  lies  in  the  fair  way  to  China, 
and  yet  no  vessel  has  ever  touched  or  gone  around  it.  It  would  repay 
ten-fold  the  cost  of  the  whole  exploration,  if  we  should  find  on  that 
island  a  good  harbor  and  a  friendly  people.*  Horsbergh's  charts  of 
these  passages  are  the  best.  But  these  are  of  old  dates,  and  although 
they  have  been  corrected  from  time  to  time,  yet  they  are  very  imper 
fect.  The  shoals  in  the  China  Sea,  the  Sea  of  Japan,  and  the  Straits 
of  Gasper,  are  represented  to  us  by  navigators  as  being  formed  of 
coral,  a  mixture  of  animal  and  vegetable  organization,  and  therefore  in 
creasing  rapidly  in  magnitude  as  they  approach  near  to  the  surface  of 
the  waters.  It  is  particularly  necessary  to  explore  and  note  the  shoals 
and  islands  lying  between  the  coast  of  Palawan  on  the  China  Sea  and 
that  of  Cochin  China,  and  also  the  shoals  in  the  vicinity  of  West  Lon 
don,  Prince  of  Wales,  and  Paulo  Sapata  islands.  The  perils  existing 
there  oblige  ships  going  up  and  coming  down  through  those  seas  against 
the  monsoons  to  beat  at  disadvantage,  while  an  exploration  would  prob- 
j- = . 

*  Within  the  last  year,  the  Memnon,  an  American  ship,  valued  with  her  cargo 
at  $500,000.  was  lost  in  the  Straits  of  Gasper. 


11 

ably  disclose  eddies  and  currents  which  would  allow  of  straight  courses 
where  now  no  one  dares  pursue  them.  Clements  Strait  and  the  Cara- 
mata  Passage  are  filled  with  the  same  dangers.  Again,  the  great  outlet 
from  the  China  Sea  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  the  Bahee,  and  adjacent 
passages  between  the  islands  of  Luconia  and  the  coasts  of  China  and 
Formosa,  need  to  be  surveyed,  although  the  islands  are  generally  well 
designated  on  the  maps.  Then  proceeding  northwardly,  a  regard  to* 
the  safety  of  the  whaleman  demands  that  the  islands  between  the  coasts 
of  China  and  Japan,  and  from  thence  to  the  Loo  Choo  islands,  and  so 
on  to  the  Russian  possessions,  and  along  them  eastwardly  to  Bhering 
Straits,  should  be  surveyed.  The  last  attempt  to  perform  that  duty 
was  made  by  a  small  Russian  fleet,  which  was  captured  and  destroyed, 
while  its  officers  and  crew  were  imprisoned  by  the  Japanese.  Lastly,  as 
we  advance  eastwardly  in  the  very  track  pursued  by  our  whalers  and 
Chinamen,  we  encounter  islands,  and  many  shoals  imperfectly  defined, 
and  especially  the  Bonin  islands ;  while  prudence  requires  a  careful  re- 
connoissance  also  of  the  Fox  islands,  which,  although  lying  somewhat 
northwardly  of  the  passage,  might,  if  well  knowrn,  afford  shelter  in  case 
of  inclement  weather.  This  reconnoissance  in  a  temperate  latitude  is 
demanded  by  the  merchants,  underwriters,  and  navigators,  in  all  our 
Atlantic  as  well  as  in  our  two  principal  Pacific  ports,  and  the  argument 
for  it  rests  on  the  same  foundation  with  that  which  supports  the  propo 
sition  for  the  more  northwardly  exploration.  Your  mails  and  passen 
gers  of  a  certain  class  will  be  carried  between  San  Francisco  and 
Shanghai  in  steamships.  Nevertheless,  without  such  a  survey  as  this 
bill  proposes,  you  cannot  establish  a  coaling  station  on  the  way, 
although  the  voyage  exceeds  seven  thousand  miles.  Will  you  leave  this 
survey  and  its  benefits  to  England  ? 

Sir,  have  you  looked  recently  at  the  China  trade?  It  reaches 
already  seven  millions  in  value  annually.  Have  you  watched  the  Cali 
fornia  trade?  Its  export  of  bullion  alone  already  exceeds  fifty  millions 
of  dollars  annually,  and  as  yet  the  mineral  development  of  that  State 
has  only  begun.  The  settlement  of  the  Pacific  coast  is  in  a  state  of 
sheer  infancy.  There  is,  speaking  relatively,  neither  capital  nor  labor 
there  adequate  to  exhibit  the  forces  of  industry  that  might  be  employed 
in  that  wonderful  region.  Nor  is  California  yet  conveniently  accessible. 
The  railway  across  Panama  is  not  yet  completed.  The  passage 
through  Nicaragua  is  not  perfect ;  that  which  leads  through  Tehuante- 
pec  is  not  begun ;  nor  have  we  yet  extended,  even  so  far  as  to  the  Mis 
sissippi,  the  most  important  and  necessary  one  of  them  all,  the  railroad 
across  our  own  country  to  San  Francisco.  The  emigrant  to  the  Atlan 
tic  coast  arrives  speedily  and  cheaply  from  whatever  quarter  of  the 
world ;  while  he  who  would  seek  the  Pacific  shore  encounters  charges 
and  delays  which  few  can  sustain.  Nevertheless,  the  commercial, 
social,  political  movements  of  the  world  are  now  in  the  direction  of 
California.  Separated  as  it  is  from  us  by  foreign  lands,  or  more  im 
passable  mountains,  we  are  establishing  there  a  custom-house,  a  mint, 
a  dry  dock,  Indian  agencies,  and  ordinary  and  extraordinary  tribunals 
of  justice.  Without  waiting  for  perfect  or  safe  channels,  a  strong  and 
steady  stream  of  emigration  flows  thither  from  every  State  and  every 
district  eastward  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Similar  torrents  of  emi 
gration  are  pouring  into  California  and  Australia  from  the  South 


12 

American  States,  from  Europe,  and  from  Asia.     This  movement  is  not 
a  sudden,  or  accidental,  or  irregular,  or  convulsive  one  ;  but  it  is  one 
for  which  men  and  Nature  have  been  preparing  through  near  four  hun 
dred  years.     During  all  that  time,  merchants  and  princes  have  been 
seeking  how  they  could  reach  cheaply  and  expeditiously,  "  Cathay," 
"  China,"  "  the  East,"  that  intercourse  and  commerce  might  be  es 
tablished  between  its  ancient  nations  and  the  newer  ones  of  the  West. 
To  these  objects  De  Gama,  Columbus,  Americus,  Cabot,  Hudson,  and 
other  navigators,  devoted  their  talents,  their  labors,  and  their  lives. 
Even  the  discovery  of  this  continent  and  its  islands,  and  the  organiza 
tion  of  society  and  government  upon  them,  grand  and  important  as 
these  events  have  been,  were  but  conditional,  preliminary,  and  ancil 
lary  to  the  more  sublime  result,  now  in  the  act  of  consummation — the 
reunion  of  the  two  civilizations,  which,  having  parted  on  the  plains  of 
Asia  four  thousand  years  ago,  and  having  travelled  ever  afterwards  in 
opposite  directions  around  the  world,  now  meet  again  on  the  coasts  and 
islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.    Certainly,  no  mere  human  event  of  equal 
dignity  and  importance  has  ever  occurred  upon  the  earth.     It  will  be 
followed  by  the  equalization  of  the  condition  of  society  and  the  restora 
tion  of  the  unity  of  the  human  family.     We  see  plainly  enough  why 
this  event  could  not  have  come  before,  and  why  it  has  come  now.     A 
certain  amount  of  human  freedom,  a  certain  amount  of  human  intelli 
gence,  a  certain  extent  of  human  control  over  the  physical  obstacles  to 
such  a  reunion,  were  necessary.     All  the  conditions  have  happened  and 
concurred.     Liberty  has  developed  under  improved  forms  of  govern 
ment,  and  science  has  subjected  Nature  in  Western  Europe  and  in 
America.     Navigation,  improved  by  steam,  enables  men  to  outstrip  the 
winds,  and  intelligence  convejTed  by  electricity  excels  in  velocity  the 
light.    With  these  favoring  circumstances  there  has  come  also  a  sudden 
abundance  of  gold,  that  largely  relieves  labor  from  its  long  subjection 
to  realized  capital.     Sir,  this  movement  is  no  delusion.     It  will  no 
more  stop  than  the  emigration  from  Europe  to  our  own  Atlantic  shores 
has  stopped,  or  can  stop,  while  labor  is  worth  there  twenty  cents  and 
here  fifty  cents  a  day.     Emigration  from  China  cannot  stop  while  labor 
is  worth  in  California  five  dollars  a  day,  and  in  the  West  Indies  ten 
dollars  a  month,  and  yet  is  "north  in  China  only  five  dollars  for  that 
period.     Accordingly,  we  have  seen  sixty-seven  ships  filled,  in  three 
months  of  the  present  year,  with  17,000  emigrants  in  the  ports  of 
Hong  Kong,  Macao,  and  Whampoa,  and  afterwards  discharge  them  on 
the  shores  of  California,  and  of  Cuba  and  other  islands  of  the  West 
Indies. 

Sir,  have  you  considered  the  basis  of  this  movement,  that  this  conti 
nent  and  Australia  are  capable  of  sustaining,  and  need  for  their  develop 
ment,  five  hundred  millions,  while  their  population  is  confined  to  fifty 
millions,  and  yet  that  Asia  has  two  hundred  millions  of  excess?  As 
for  those  who  doubt  that  this  great  movement  will  quicken  activity  and 
create  wealth  and  power  in  California  and  Oregon,  I  leave  them  to 
consider  what  changes  the  movements,  similar  in  nature  but  inferior  in 
force  and  slower  in  effect,  have  produced  already  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
of  America.  As  to  those  who  cannot  see  how  this  movement  will 
improve  the  condition  of  Asia,  I  leave  them  to  reflect  upon  the  improve 
ments  in  the  condition  of  Europe  since  the  discovery  and  colonization 


13 

of  America.  Who  does  not  see,  then,  that  every  year  hereafter,  Euro 
pean  commerce,  European  politics,  European  thoughts,  and  European 
activity,  although  actually  gaining  greater  force — and  European  con 
nections,  although  actually  becoming  more  intimate — will  nevertheless 
relatively  sink  in  importance ;  while  the  Pacific  Ocean,  its  shores,  its 
islands,  and  the  vast  regions  beyond,  will  become  the  chief  theatre  of 
events  in  the  World's  great  Hereafter  1  Who  does  not  see  that  this 
movement  must  effect  our  own  complete  emancipation  from  what 
remains  of  European  influence  and  prejudice,  and  in  turn  develop  the 
American  opinion  and  influence  which  shall  remould  constitutions,  laws, 
and  customs,  in  the  land  that  is  first  greeted  by  the  rising  sun  1  Sir, 
although  I  am  no  Socialist,  no  dreamer  of  a  suddenly-coming  millen 
nium,  I  nevertheless  cannot  reject  the  hope  that  Peace  is  now  to  have 
her  sway,  and  that  as  War  has  hitherto  defaced  and  saddened  the 
Atlantic  world,  the  better  passions  of  mankind  will  soon  have  their 
development  in  the  new  theatre  of  human  activity. 

Commerce  is  the  great  agent  of  this  movement.  Whatever  nation 
shall  put  that  commerce  into  full  employment,  and  shall  conduct  it 
steadily  with  adequate  expansion,  will  become  necessarily  the  greatest 
of  existing  States ;  greater  than  any  that  has  ever  existed.  Sir,  you 
will  claim  that  responsibility  and  that  high  destiny  for  our  own  coun 
try.  Are  you  so  sure  that  by  assuming  the  one  she  will  gain  the 
other  ?  They  imply  nothing  less  than  universal  commerce  and  the 
supremacy  of  the  seas.  We  are  second  to  England,  indeed,  but,  never 
theless,  how  far  are  we  not  behind  her  in  commerce  and  in  extent  of 
Empire !  I  pray  to  know  where  you  will  go  that  you  will  not  meet 
the  flag  of  England,  fixed,  planted,  rooted  into  the  very  earth  1  If  you 
go  northward,  it  waves  over  half  of  this  Continent  of  North  America, 
which  we  call  our  own.  If  you  go  southward,  it  greets  you  on  the 
Bermudas,  the  Bahamas,  and  the  Caribbee  Islands.  On  the  Falkland 
Islands  it  guards  the  Straits  of  Magellan ;  on  the  South  Shetland 
Island  it  watches  the  passage  round  the  Horn  ;  and  at  Adelaide  Island 
it  warns  you  that  you  have  reached  the  Antarctic  Circle.  When  you 
ascend  along  the  southwestern  coast  of  America,  it  is  seen  at  Gal- 
opagos,  overlooking  the  Isthmus  of  Panama;  and  having  saluted  it 
there,  and  at  Vancouver,  you  only  take  leave  of  it  in  the  far  North 
west,  when  you  are  entering  the  Arctic  Ocean.  If  you  visit  Africa, 
you  find  the  same  victorious  cross  guarding  the  coast  of  Gambia  and 
Sierra  Leone  and  St.  Helena.  It  watches  you  at  Cape  Town  as  you 
pass  into  the  Indian  Ocean  ;  while  on  the  northern  passage  to  that  vast 
sea  it  demands  your  recognition  from  Gibraltar,  as  you  enter  the  Med 
iterranean  ;  from  Malta,  when  you  pass  through  the  Sicilian  Straits ; 
on  the  Ionian  Islands  it  waves  in  protection  of  Turkey ;  and  at  Aden 
it  guards  the  passage  from  the  Red  Sea  into  the  Indian  Ocean.  Wher 
ever  Western  commerce  has  gained  an  entrance  to  the  Continent  of 
Asia,  there  that  flag  is  seen  waving  over  subjugated  millions — at  Bom 
bay,  at  Ceylon,  at  Singapore,  at  Calcutta,  at  Lahore,  and  at  Hong 
Kong ;  while  Australia  and  nearly  all  the  Islands  of  Polynesia  acknowl 
edge  its  protection. 

Sir,  I  need  not  tell  you  that  wherever  that  flag  waves,  it  is  support 
ed  and  cheered  by  the  martial  airs  of  England.  But  I  care  not  for 
that.  The  sword  is  not  the  most  winning  messenger  that  can  be  sent 


14 

abroad;  and  commerce,  like  power,  upheld  by  armies  and  navies, 
may  in  time  be  found  to  cost  too  much.  But  what  is  to  be  regarded 
with  more  concern  is,  that  England  employs  the  steam  engine  even 
more  vigorously  and  more  universally  than  her  military  force.  Steam 
engines,  punctually  departing  and  arriving  between  every  one  of  her 
various  possessions  and  her  island  seat  of  power,  bring  in  the  raw 
material  for  every  manufacture  and  supplies  for  every  want.  The 
steam  engine  plies  incessantly  there,  day  and  night,  converting  these 
materials  into  fabrics  of  every  variety,  for  the  use  of  man.  And  again 
the  steam  engine  forever  and  without  rest  moves  over  the  face  of  the 
deep,  not  only  distributing  these  fabrics  to  every  part  of  the  globe,  but 
disseminating  also  the  thoughts,  the  principles,  the  language  and  reli 
gion  of  England.  Sir,  we  are  bold  indeed  to  dare  competition  with 
such  a  Power.  Nevertheless,  the  resources  for  it  are  adequate.  We 
.  have  coal  and  iron  no  less  than  she,  while  corn,  timber,  cattle,  hemp, 
wool,  cotton,  silk,  oil,  sugar,  and  the  grape,  quicksilver,  lead,  copper, 
silver,  and  gold,  are  all  found  within  our  own  broad  domain  in  inex 
haustible  profusion.  What  energies  we  have  already  expended  prove 
that  we  have  in  reserve  all  that  are  needful.  What  inventions  we 
have  made  prove  our  equality  to  any  exigency.  Our  capital  increases, 
while  labor  scarcely  knows  the  burthen  of  taxation.  Our  Panama 
route  to  China  has  a  decided  advantage  over  that  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Suez,  and  at  the  same  time  vessels  leaving  that  country  and  coming 
round  the  Horn,  will  reach  New  York  always  at  least  five  days  sooner 
than  vessels  of  equal  speed  can  double  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and 
make  the  port  of  Liverpool. 

Mr.  President,  we  now  see  how  conspicuous  a  part  in  the  great 
movement  of  the  age,  California  and  Oregon  are  to  sustain,  and  that, 
as  yet,  they  are  separated  from  us  and  isolated.  They  will  adhere  to 
us  only  so  long  as  our  Government  over  them  shall  be  conducted,  not  for 
our  benefit,  but  for  their  own.  Their  loyalty  is  great,  but  it  cannot 
exceed  that  of  the  thirteen  ancient  American  colonies  to  Great  Britain ; 
and  yet  the  neglect  and  oppression  of  their  commerce  undermined  that 
loyalty,  and  resulted  in  their  independence.  I  hear  often  of  dangers  to  the 
Union,  and  see  lines  of  threatened  separation  drawn  by  passionate  men 
or  alarmists,  on  parallels  of  latitude ;  but,  in  my  judgment,  there  is 
only  one  danger  of  severance — and  that  is  involved  in  the  possibility  of 
criminal  neglect  of  the  new  communities  on  the  Pacific  coast,  while 
the  summits  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  or  of  the  Snowy  Mountains, 
mark  the  only  possible  line  of  dismemberment.  Against  that  danger  I 
would  guard  as  against  the  worst  calamity  that  could  befal,  not  only 
my  country,  at  her  most  auspicious  stage  of  progress,  but  mankind 
also,  in  the  hour  of  their  brightest  hopes.  I  would  guard  against  it  by 
practising  impartial  justice  toward  the  new  and  remote  States  and 
Territories,  whose  political  power  is  small,  while  their  wants  are  great, 
and  by  pursuing  at  the  same  time,  with  liberality  and  constancy,  the 
lofty  course  which  they  indicate,  of  an  aspiring  yet  generous  and 
humane  national  ambition. 


